Diaspora Nigerians tell Buhari to hold police accountable

• HURIWA seeks prosecution of rights violators in SARS
• Defence minister warns against security breach

To support the nationwide protests tagged EndSARS, Nigerians in the Diaspora have told President Muhammadu Buhari to hold the police accountable for the lives lost through their brutality.

Nigeria Diaspora Network (NDN) warned that unless the Federal Government fulfilled its promises towards that end, the occupation of major cities across the country might not end.

The International Coordinator, Samuel Atolaiye, told newsmen over the weekend that the only way to pacify the youths on the streets across the country was for the Federal Government to give justice to the families of police brutality victims in the country.

For over a week now, Nigerian youths have been on the streets agitating for good governance and respect for human rights. On why the protests were spontaneous, since there was no group coordinating it across the country, Atolaiye said he was glad that the youths, who had been labelled lazy and inarticulate, came out to participate in a peaceful protest to provide the nation with the golden opportunity to discuss the possibility of restructuring critical areas of the country.

He implored the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Adamu, to cooperate with the commissions of enquiry set up by the states and ensure that members of SARS who are found culpable were made to face the law.

IN the same vein, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has tasked Buhari and the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Adamu, to prosecute operatives of the disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) indicted for human rights violations.

Speaking at a press briefing yesterday in Abuja, the National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, also called for overhaul of the police through constitutional reforms and setting up a judicial commission of inquiry into alleged extra-judicial killings by the police and to audit all detention centres run by the police.

HURIWA added that corruption, inadequate funding, poor training, interference of governments in police duties and understaffing were results of circumvention of standards, as rules and orders stipulated by the Police Act were not adhered to.

MEANWHILE, the Minister of Defence, Maj-Gen. Bashir Magashi (rtd.), has cautioned the protesters against breaching national security.

Magashi gave the caution when the National Coordinator of Buhari Campaign Organisation (BCO), Danladi Pasali, led executive members from its headquarters, as well as zonal and state levels to visit his office at Ship House, Abuja.

He told the group of his pioneering membership of BCO, which dated back to the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) days, urging them to guard against infiltration of mischief-makers among them.

In a statement by his Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mohammed Abdulkadir, the minister assured them of his ministry’s support in actualising their lofty programmes of raising the national security bar.

He charged them to leverage on their structure in the 774 councils, 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to gather intelligence and channel it to the appropriate authorities for action.

Earlier, Pasali had said that they visited the ministry to congratulate the minister on his one year in office and to thank him for emplacing “gigantic reforms” in the military.